“I did.” Paki banked in the direction of the sound.
Taela’s heart almost stopped as the source came into view. A tall tree had been stripped of every branch but one. A shirtless Brock hung from it by his wrists. Blood ran down his neck and chest where a black chain burrowed into his skin. More blood flowed down his side from a stab wound just under his ribs.
“Oh Fates, Paki,” she whispered.
The silver landed, sending a distress call to the other dragons. Taela yanked the safety straps loose and dropped to the ground. “There’s no way I can reach him. Can you get him down?”
In answer, Paki reached up and carefully severed his bindings with her claws. He fell heavily to the ground. Sobs wracked his body then he stiffened and screamed again. The agonized cry made Taela cover her ears, the emotional torment unbearable. He sobbed incoherently and crawled to where Olen lay unmoving in the grass, his color faded to white.
The others arrived in a rush of wind and wings. Tears burned Taela’s eyes and rolled freely down her face. Brock reached Olen and laid his head on the dragon’s neck, one hand resting on the white scales of Olen’s face.
Nolan, Nira, and Mckale ran to Brock, but he pushed them away. Nira rocked back on her heels. “Brock, you will die if you don’t let me heal you.”
He placed his hand back on the dragon’s face and shook his head. “Let me die.” Another wave of pain wracked him. His scream was cut short as his muscles seized, clamping his jaw shut.
Nira and Nolan stood and took a step back. Taela stared at them. “You’re just going to leave him?”
Nolan sighed and ran his hands over his face. Frustration rolled off him in waves. “Yes, we are just going to leave him. We have no right to force healing on someone who refuses. He has the right to say no.”
“What are you talking about!” Taela stormed forward until she was standing in front of the two healers. “He isn’t thinking straight. Olen is dead. How can you respect a decision made under such circumstances?”
“Because of the circumstances!” Nolan shouted back. “He already suffers Separation.”
Nira placed a hand on Nolan’s arm and looked at Taela. “He has no bondmate. No bondmate dragon to help ease the pain. Even if we healed the injury that kills him as we speak, he would never survive Separation. It is kinder to let him go. To respect his decision.”
Taela turned to face Brock again. Mckale remained kneeling beside him, holding the hand that wasn’t on Olen. All of the grief squeezed her chest until it was too painful. Brock began to gasp, his breath shuddering. He stared at Olen as the life faded from his eyes. His chest heaved one last time and he lay still.
Nira leaned into Marcaius’ arms, a look of utter defeat on her face as she stared at Brock and Olen for a long moment. Suddenly she pushed away from Marcaius and sprinted toward Saria. “We have to find Loki and Merru. Now!”
Sobs shook Taela as she ran to Paki. She could barely see through the tears to fasten the safety straps.
Kirynn found Loki in a tangle of young trees flattened by Merru’s body and a shadow. The two dragons, gold and black, lay in a twisted pile. Neither riders nor dragons moved. The safety straps had torn loose, and Loki lay several paces from the gold, impaled on a broken piece of tree. The side of his body was horribly burned, and his left eye wasn’t visible through the gash that split open his face and left a portion of his scalp hanging. One leg was bent at the hip in an awkward angle.
She picked her way carefully through the felled trees and reached out to feel for a pulse. A faint throb met her fingertips. He stirred at her touch and mumbled, “Merru…”
“Shh. You’re badly injured. Don’t try to move.”
“Meeerrush,” the slurred word barely made it past his swollen lips.
Kirynn looked at the gold. From this angle, she could see his body moving with shallow breaths. Large wounds showed where claws and teeth had taken chunks out of him. His wings looked like they’d taken the brunt of the crash into the trees. She turned back to Loki. “He lives.”
Loki sighed and passed out again. Slides opened all over the sky as other Guardians arrived. Nira and Nolan were the first to reach them. Nolan went straight to Merru while Nira placed her hands on Loki.
Shryden, Tanis, and Saria worked together to pull the shriveled body of the Shadow Dragon away. As they did, Kirynn could see the hole burned through the chest of the rider from a deadly light weave. At least Loki had gotten the pile of shadow dung.
Nira pulled her hands away from Loki. “We have to move him off this tree—now. Kirynn, grab him around the waist. Mckale, take his shoulders.”
Kirynn placed her arms under his hips, and Mckale grabbed him under the shoulders. Nira stood and said, “On the count of three you two will lift together. It’s going to cause more damage no matter how we do this, so let’s be quick and,” she pointed to a grassy spot several paces away, “put him down there. One…two…three.”
Kirynn and Mckale lifted together. Loki came awake with a shout, but they managed to hold him securely while he struggled. Thankfully, the stump was small, and they removed him from it fast. Unconsciousness claimed him again, and his blood ran onto the ground as they started for the grassy area. Nira placed her hands on Loki and began healing while they moved him and eased him down.
Everyone waited in silence while Nira worked, the tension so thick Kirynn could have cut it with her zahri. Another death would be devastating.
When Nolan finished with Merru, he staggered a few steps away then fell. Mckale and Belynn were quick to help him reach a sitting position. Varnen offered him a traveling cake. “You need to eat and get some energy back.”
Nolan accepted it with a nod and whispered, “Thank you.”
Jocelynn and Marcaius moved to bracket Nira, and Kirynn pulled a traveling cake out of her own pouch to have ready. The healing stretched on. A knot began to form in Kirynn’s stomach as she fought for distance. Even if Loki died right here, he had lived, truly lived, and his death was not without a fight. She would rejoice in those two things.
Finally, Nira pulled her hands away and collapsed into Marcaius’ arms. He held her tenderly as she leaned against him while Jocelynn took the traveling cake from Kirynn and handed it to Nira.
Nira took a bite, chewed slowly, swallowed, and said, “Water.” Everyone tried to hand her their water bag at once. She chuckled. “I don’t think I can drink that much.”
Mckale glanced at Loki. “How is he?”
Nira took a drink from Jocelynn’s water bag and wiped her mouth. “He will live. It will take a few more sessions to mend him fully.” She gave Jocelynn a stern look. “You have just had several serious wounds healed and should be resting in Galdrilene.”
“I couldn’t leave until everyone was accounted for.” Jocelynn glanced at Loki. “I needed to know.”
“As we all did,” Belynn said.
Mckale glanced at the gathered group. “Everyone’s accounted for now. I want anyone who had more than superficial injuries healed to go back to Galdrilene. Everyone else needs to be on their way to Markene. We have to keep it secure.”
As the others began to move toward their dragons, Kirynn said, “At least we held our ground this time.”
Mckale nodded, his expression grave. “We have to find thanks in any victory we can today. You need to go to Galdrilene as well and get that healed.” He pointed at her arm. “Nira, Nolan, and Serena have already pushed themselves too far.”
Kirynn glanced down and noticed the deep slice through her upper arm and the blood caked on her skin. “It probably looks worse than it is.”
“No reason to leave it open to infection.”
“Since my arm still works, it can be healed after Loki, Vaddoc, and their dragons are back in Galdrilene. I will help with transport.”
He nodded. “If you wish.”
Syrakynn reached out to her, “Vaddoc and Namir have been moved to Galdrilene.”
“We will follow them soon.”
Nira
brushed aside a dark ringlet that had escaped her braid. “In the right hand pack on Saria’s saddle is a transport sling. Will one of you grab it for me?”
Kirynn strode to the yellow dragon and unfastened the buckles on the pack. Inside, tightly rolled up, was the canvas and rope sling. She pulled it out and began to unroll it as she walked back.
Marcaius helped Mckale position Loki better, and Kirynn laid the sling on the ground next to him. Together, the four of them moved Loki with minimal jostling. As Nira began pulling the ropes up and tying the appropriate knots, Serena came through a Slide above them. A moment later Miya landed.
Serena sat in the saddle with a pile of canvas wadded in her arms and dragging on the ground around Miya. “I brought the dragon sling. It took quite a bit to get Namir moved. Merru is smaller and there are more dragons to help so it should be easier. It was almost too much for Shryden, Miya, and Nydara to get Namir back to Galdrilene.” She glanced at the trailing ropes. “I didn’t have time to roll it back up, and it’s too heavy to carry alone.”
The five of them sorted out the tangled lines and spread the huge sheet of thick canvas out. Then they stepped back so the dragons could get Merru shoved onto it. Kirynn helped secure the buckles that would keep the gold from falling in the event one of the lines was dropped, then stepped back.
“Syrakynn and I can take Loki.”
Nira nodded. Kirynn quickly secured herself in the saddle then the red lifted off until she hovered directly above the young man and the healer. Nira and Nolan grabbed the thick ropes and hooked the loops over Syrakynn’s claws.
“I’ve got him.” The red pulled higher into the air.
Once they were well above the ground, Kirynn sensed the image form, and the Slide spun open. They came out directly over the caldera. While Syrakynn slowly lowered their cargo to the ground, the others came through a single huge Slide. Each dragon held ropes connected to the sling. Suspended between the four lay Merru.
Maleena paced the width of Vaddoc’s lair in the small hours of the morning. He lay on the bed with Serena, Nira, Nolan, and Gideon gathered around him. This was the second time in as many days that they worked to heal the damage to his back and save his organs from failure.
Worry nagged at her, but it wasn’t completely for Vaddoc. He was alive. He shouldn’t be. Vaddoc never lived in any of the possible futures she had seen in the lake, not even the last. How could the futures shift like that?
Emallya’s voice echoed in her memory, “The future you see isn’t always the future that comes.”
But she’d went through them all. Every single agonizing moment. How did this change things? Was she more likely to succeed or fail? To live or die?
And Loki. The young man she saw in the lake did not have the scars he carried now, nor was he missing an eye. An eye that no healer could replace. They weren’t big changes, and yet at the same time they might as well be mountains.
Mckale leaned against one wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Though he glanced at Vaddoc and the healers occasionally, he followed her progress back and forth across the chambers. Maleena avoided his gaze. Worried curiosity flowed through the bond from him. It was understandable; she wasn’t acting normal. Under any other conditions, her attention would be focused on the healing and recovery of her friend. Instead, her mind was consumed with the implications.
Though Maleena wasn’t sure when the final battle would be, all signs pointed to it coming sooner rather than later. Until the moment Serena saved Vaddoc’s life on the battlefield, Maleena had known how everything was going to end, what had to be done. Now it was all thrown into chaos.
She stopped and turned to Mckale. “Keep watch over him. I will return soon.”
“Where are you going?” He pushed away from the wall with a frown.
“I won’t be long. Just,” she glanced back at the bed where Vaddoc’s chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, “stay here. Please.”
Mckale stared at her with eyes that shifted between silver and iron gray. “You are keeping something from me and have been for some time. What is it?”
Her shoulders fell, and she looked away. “Fine, you can come with me.”
“Where? What aren’t you telling me?”
“There is a lot I haven’t told.” She crossed the room and paused at the doorway to the hall. “Come with me. It will be better to see for yourself. Perhaps then you will understand.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed, and his eyes shifted to gray. In his mind, she saw the understanding that he wouldn’t like what she was about to show him.
In silence, they made their way to the dark caldera where Nydara and Tellnox waited. It wasn’t long before they were in the air, and Nydara opened a Slide. They came out over the unreflective surface of Spirit Lake.
Nydara landed several paces from the sandy shore. With some reluctance, Maleena slowly removed the safety straps and dropped to the grass faded by the coming of fall. The trees where they had once camped with Emallya sported yellow leaves that danced on the light breeze in the pearl-gray light of early morning. Mckale stood beside her as they stared at the lake’s surface, which remained as smooth as glass.
“When we were here last time, I saw every possible future the lake had to offer. Including one I didn’t share the details of with you.” Maleena paused, and Mckale remained silent while she gathered her thoughts. “In every future, no matter what, I saw my own death. The only choice left to me was what I did with it.”
She didn’t look at him but his sharp intake of air mirrored the shocked fear she felt through the bond.
“Why didn’t you tell me this? We, the riders as a group, could have been working on this the whole time to find a way around it,” Mckale said, his voice revealing none of his emotions.
Maleena smiled sadly despite the anger threading through the bond from him. “That is why I didn’t tell you. You would have wasted precious time worrying about it, trying to find a way to change it instead of accepting it and treasuring the moments we have left together.”
“Why are we here then? If nothing will change it then why bother to come back here?” His brows drew down creating deep furrows between his eyes.
“Because something has changed.” Maleena looked back at the lake. “I don’t know what it means.”
“What? How do you know?” The hope that filtered through the anger almost broke her heart. It was hope she was sure wouldn’t be fulfilled.
“Vaddoc was supposed to die, and he didn’t. So something has changed.”
“Wait a minute.” Mckale grabbed her arm and turned her toward him. “You knew he was likely to die and you said nothing…”
Maleena pulled away from his grip. “I can’t tell you every possible future I see. There is a reason I have this power and not you. Do you not remember Emallya’s warnings about this lake? You can’t assume everything is completely concrete, and you can’t run around trying to change the things that are. Sometimes the threads the Fates weave are wonderful and sometimes they are tragic. Either way, we can do no more than follow our thread to where it leads us. Even if it leads us to death. In every possible future I saw, Vaddoc was dead by the final battle of this war, and I knew when he died. He shouldn’t be alive.”
“Vaddoc still lives. That means you have a chance of living as well.”
“Don’t, Mckale.” She started through the knee-deep grass.
He followed her. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. We will see what the lake offers now. Nydara will send everything I see to both you and Tellnox. This is for us alone. The entire group of Guardians can’t be informed. It will only lead to chaos as people try to change the things they see. Taela and Kellinar are the only ones we can discuss it with.”
“So you told them but not me.”
“I had no choice. They had to go into Maiadar for the weave. I showed it all to Taela. Kellinar discovered it while inside Maiadar.” Maleena knelt on the soft sand next to the water
though she left no lasting impression on it.
Mckale crossed his arms. “And Kellinar kept it from me. Looks like I need to have a talk with my friend.”
“He is your friend, Mckale, and mine as well. Both Taela and I forbade him from speaking to you about it. Would you cross the two of us?”
He shook his head and growled under his breath before finally saying, “I suppose not. Let’s just get on with this.”
Maleena bent over the water and placed a single fingertip on the surface. Threads of silver flowed into the lake, twisting around each other as they reached for the center, and sank into the depths.
In her mind the futures began to play out again. Once again, she watched the heart-wrenching scenes of her friends’ deaths and felt her own. There were minor changes in each scenario but nothing significant until the last. When her future self began the weave, darkness consumed the vision. The shadowy veil prevented her from seeing how it ended.
Maleena pulled her hand away as the sun broke the horizon. It took her several moments to collect her broken emotions. At some point, Mckale had dropped to his knees next to her. He stared at the lake with deep sorrow in his silver eyes.
“So much pain and death, so much…” his voice broke, and he rubbed his hands over his face, wiping away the shimmer of tears that had gathered in his eyes. After several deep breaths she sensed his control return, and he finally looked at her. “How do you see so many terrible futures and not fall apart?”
“I don’t fall apart because I know I can prevent the most painful ones. I have no choice in what I do. No other choices I’m willing to take anyway.” She slowly stood and backed away from the lake.
“Everything happened just as before then. Nothing changed,” he said. Though his emotions were under tight control now, she still sensed the sorrow in him.
“A few things changed. Even so, none of it was large enough to change the events. Except the last one.” She regarded him. “The first time my death was clearly visible. Now the entire end is clouded in shadows, and I can’t see through them. I no longer know what the future holds for me.”
Ashes And Spirit (Book 3) Page 37
